The "G.I. Joe" movie franchise has been missing in action, but if there's one guy who can rescue it,
it's the ninja known as Snake Eyes. The character is returning in an all-new series reboot;
here's everything you need to know about "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins."
The first bit of news about the "Snake Eyes" movie that the public heard came
out over three years ago, way back in May 2018.
At the time, the Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Paramount Pictures had put into development
a "G.I. Joe" spin-off film centered around Snake Eyes, tapping the live-action "Beauty and the
Beast" movie screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos to pen the script and Brian Goldner to produce.
The outlet also noted that executives at Paramount and Hasbro had been keen on rebooting
the "G.I. Joe" franchise, and had commissioned a writers room dedicated to developing movies and
cinematic universes around the Hasbro properties, including "G.I. Joe," "Transformers," "M.A.S.K.",
and "Micronauts." By all accounts, the "Snake Eyes" solo flick was one such
idea - and according to an interview producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura gave to Entertainment
Weekly in 2021, it was one of the only solid ideas that writers room happened to produce.
Things were relatively quiet on the "Snake Eyes" front until December 2018,
when Robert Schwentke signed on as the film's director. Audiences will
know Schwentke as the director behind movies like "The Time Traveler's Wife,"
"R.I.P.D.," "The Divergent Series: Insurgent," and "The Divergent Series: Allegiant."
In 2010's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and 2013's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," the Scottish
martial artist Ray Park played Snake Eyes. In December 2018, "G.I. Joe" franchise producer
Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed with Slashfilm that Ray Park wouldn't be reprising his role
for the character's origin story, leaving the possibilities for the movie wide open.
It wasn't until mid-2019 that the "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" cast started to come together,
and a few more months after that before the movie kicked off production.
So, if Ray Park isn't Snake Eyes, then who is? That'd be Malaysian English actor Henry Golding,
whose performance as Nick Young in the beloved romantic comedy "Crazy Rich Asians" has led
to roles in the feature films "A Simple Favor," "Monsoon," "Last Christmas," and "The Gentlemen."
Through "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins," the talented actor will be taking on his first
leading role in an action movie, and he has a heck of a supporting cast surrounding him.
"Snake Eyes" also stars "Ready or Not" and "Bill & Ted Face the Music" actress Samara Weaving
as Scarlett, a fierce G.I. Joe agent who also works for Clan Arashikage; "Money Heist" star
Úrsula Corberó as the Baroness, a member of the terrorist organization Cobra; Peter Mensah of
"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." fame as Clan Arashikage's co-leader Blind Master; Andrew Koji
of the excellent Cinemax series "Warrior" as Snake Eyes' friend-turned-deadly-nemesis Storm Shadow;
and Haruka Abe as Akiko, a Clan Arashikage trainee with connections to Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.
Rounding out the cast of "Snake Eyes" are Iko Uwais as Storm Shadow's uncle Hard Master,
who leads Clan Arashikage; Takehiro Hira as Cobra member Kenta;
and Steven Allerick as Snake Eyes' father.
Playing a character as famous as Snake Eyes in a franchise as action-heavy as "G.I. Joe"
would require even in-shape actors to get more ripped in preparation. Henry Golding,
whom no one would consider unmuscular in his everyday life, got totally shredded to play Snake
Eyes - undergoing intense training that yielded impressive results. In November 2020, Golding
said that he "became a weapon" during "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" prep, and even shared
a jaw-dropping clip from one of his training sessions on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
"It put me through my paces. We had, like, four hours of choreography
every single day. We had two hours of script work, then like an hour of PT."
According to Golding, the producers of "Snake Eyes" went out on a limb in casting him,
having faith that he would be able to build on his boxing and martial arts background
to become a credible supersoldier. That bet seems to have paid off in a big way.
"It was worth it, because I became a weapon, I'm not going to lie."
The "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" cast and crew began filming in October 2019,
shooting in Vancouver, Canada from the 15th of that month to the 9th of
December. When Vancouver shooting wrapped, the production moved to a new locale: Tokyo, Japan.
The cast and crew spent about six weeks in Japan, and in late February 2020, Golding announced that
all principal photography for "Snake Eyes" was complete, writing in an Instagram post,
"...and THAT, is a principal wrap on Snake Eyes lady's and gents
What a crew we had, Vancouver + Japan, you were unstoppable. Thank you for the dedication,
this film is going to blow everyone's socks off x."
Initially, "Snake Eyes" was slated for a theatrical release on March 27,
2020. Like many movies originally slated for that year, it ended up going through some
release date reshuffling, eventually being taken off of Paramount's release schedule entirely.
Over a year later, in March 2021, Golding came forward with another announcement about filming:
"Snake Eyes" was undergoing reshoots.
In an Instagram post about the reshoots, Golding acknowledged the difficulty of filming under COVID
protocols, and expressed his happiness that they were still able to pull it off in spite of it.
"We just got some reshoots for 'Snake Eyes,' but I'm so grateful that we're able to pull this off."
After those last minute reshoots,
the film is now officially set to land in theaters on July 23, 2021.
First and foremost, "Snake Eyes" will be an origin story - and as such, fans will
get to see the events that transform him into the masked, silent badass they know and love.
In the "G.I. Joe" animated series and in the Marvel comics, Snake Eyes' silence has been
chalked up to damaged vocal cords, but that fact was retconned for the feature films.
Snake Eyes doesn't say a word in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and "G.I. Joe:
Retaliation" because he previously took a vow of silence following the apparent
murder of one of his masters at the hands of Storm Shadow.
The film's story will focus on Snake Eyes accepting an invitation to begin training
with the Arashikage, a clan of Japanese ninja. The process will prove more difficult than
anyone bargained for, as the truth about Snake Eyes' past comes to the surface,
his mind and heart are tested, and his body is pushed to its limits.
Of course, with Storm Shadow as a key member of the character roster,
there should be an epic showdown between the dangerous man and his former friend Snake Eyes.
Remarks that star Henry Golding has made indicate that "Snake Eyes"
will be charged with a weighty task: rebooting the entire "G.I. Joe" film
series. During a press conference in January 2020, the actor said,
"[The movie is] unlike anything people will have seen. We're really starting a new timeline,
a new franchise with[in] the 'G.I. Joe' universe. To kick it off with
such a distinct and stylized film, I think, it really sets the precedent for follow-up movies."
While one could make the case that Paramount and Hasbro are jumping the gun by rebooting
the series after only two films, it seems like a smart move. "G.I. Joe" has the potential to
be a smash-hit property along the lines of the "Fast and Furious" and "Mission:
Impossible" franchises, but it hasn't happened yet; previous entries in the
franchise, "Rise of Cobra" and "Retaliation" underperformed critically and commercially.
In his past comments, Golding perhaps inadvertently pinned down one big reason for this:
a lack of personality. "Snake Eyes" can fix that, reintroducing the franchise by
way of an origin flick for its most compelling and unique character.
Though "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" has yet to open in theaters, Paramount and Hasbro executives
already have a sequel in the works. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news in an exclusive report
on May 1, 2020, detailing that "Rebecca" and "Seberg" writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna
Waterhouse teamed up to co-write the script for "Snake Eyes 2." Lorenzo di Bonaventura
is returning to produce and, of course, Henry Golding is circling back to star as Snake Eyes.
There isn't a whole lot of information about the "Snake Eyes" sequel out there just yet,
and fans will have to wait to see the first flick to know what might happen in the second.
It stands to reason that "Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins" could end with its
eponymous character taking a vow of silence or venturing to never show his face again,
although doing both, while canonically accurate, might make for an underwhelming follow-up film.
Lucasfilm's Disney+ streaming series "The Mandalorian" proved that a project's main
character doesn't have to show their face at all times - Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin
almost never takes his helmet off - but that they should at least speak up every now and
then to keep things interesting. There's also bonus points of course for the masked character
showing some wit and humor when they do engage in conversation. How will fans feel if Snake
Eyes hides his face but not his voice, or vice versa, instead of doing both down the line?
In any case, it says a lot that Paramount and Hasbro greenlit a
sequel well before "Snake Eyes" debuted. Fingers crossed that when "Snake Eyes:
G.I. Joe Origins" debuts on July 23, it'll blow everyone away.
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